 In 1996, it was subsumed to "P. p. pardus".The evolutionary history of the Zanzibar leopard parallels that of other endemics on Unguja, including the Zanzibar servaline genet and the Zanzibar red colobus.It is thought to have evolved in isolation from the African leopard since at least the end of the Ice Age, when the island was separated from mainland Tanzania by rising sea levels.